Faster, Stronger, Better, Harder

Perfect Song for these two meeting


Emiki was stretching in the Training yard, getting ready to do the starting point of her favorite activity. A light 260 run, or a lap around the Land of Water then back. Sure it pushed her to her limits, but it usually ate up a good 50 to 60 minute chunk out of her day. She knew if her endurance was stronger she could easily do it in 30, maybe even 15 minutes, but sadly she'd yet to break that wall via bashing herself against it hard enough yet.

As she worked out her muscles Emiki would hum a tuneless melody as she psyched herself up before saying out loud, "Emiki is the fastest runner in all of Kiri! Someday, Emiki will run around the world so fast, that even light will lose to her mighty speed of speediness!"


[1]

Even while away from home Yoshi still had the need and desire to race. Even without a partner she would still engage in this activity, racing laps around the exterior of the village. She did this pretty regularly back in Kumogakure no Sato, and it would be something she would continue to do in Kirigakure no Sato while she was here for the exams. It was something she started with in the morning after breakfast and a few stretches. She didn’t have any set number of laps she engaged in, instead just running until she got out the majority of her energy, but this would usually be at least a few dozen, although the number would vary depending on how she was feeling on that particular day.

It was why that morning she would head to the training areas of Kirigakure, setting a space to herself in order to stretch. Not being able to run in the traditional kimono she normally wore, Yoshitsune would be dressed in her swimsuit. Effectively it was just a bikini, but she had a thin overshirt along with it that at least mimicked a shirt. She didn’t have any bottom on other than her swimsuit bottom, leaving her being just bare legs all the way down until her feet, where she wore thick wooden geta sandals. They would make a familiar click-clack with each step she made.

In the training area Yoshi would settle herself down in an area that was nearly empty, with the exception of one other girl who seemed to be talking to herself. She would begin with her stretches, although what this girl was saying caught her attention.

“Fastest runner in the world?” Yoshi would grin towards the girl. “That’s very bold to say, Miss Stranger.”

At the other kunoichi spoke, Emiki noticed the stranger, a long raven colored Kunoichi of modest proportions wearing a bikini and a white shirt. Emiki would puff out her chest as a cheeky grin played upon her face, "Upon the skies Emiki runs faster than most can think. Emiki can easily run around all of The Land of Water in about an hour, no other ninja in Kiri comes close. Although if Emiki was running on the ground it might take her a few hours ... and a lot of injuries because the ground is evil and made of pain." Emiki crowed.

Sizing up the new ninja, Emiki's grin became brighter, "But Emiki is not unkind to strangers that are blessed by Emiki's presence. How about a bet? We will prepare together, and get ready, than we shall have a fun race. If you can keep up or beat me, I shall owe you a massive feast for lunch. If I win by lets say ... 40 meters or more. You will owe Emiki lunch? Would you like to play with Emiki?"

Emiki couldn't help a fluttering in her chest at the excitement of the potential of for once in her life having a person who could give her an actual race. To push her to go faster, than simply being surrounded by people who were so much slower than her, and happy in their lack of speed. Didn't they know there were only two people in the world. Those who came in first, and those who came in last? It's why Ichiban was a thing, and not Sakuban.

[2]

Yoshitsune couldn’t help but laugh. Something about this girl just made her happy. Her attitude was so refreshing. She hadn’t seen it lately, especially with everyone so serious about the exams. It was that fresh, ‘I can do anything’ spirit. That, together with what she said about the ground being made of pain and evil. It was so true. Everything about her was perfect and amazing, Yoshitsune wanted to hug her right there and then, and she almost did. It was something she had to make a conscious effort to resist.

“Sorry! Sorry, Miss Emiki, I did not mean to offend with my laughter!” She would wipe away a tear, her body still lightly convulsing against her will with happy giggles. “You are right! I really have been blessed with your presence. You’re really too kind. Thank you…. I’d love to play with you though! Please, please just give me a moment to calm myself down…” She would ride out the rest of her laughter and giggles, and only when they came to an end naturally would she continue.

“You said you wanted a race. Did you not? What’s the plan then. Where exactly do you want to race to, Miss Emiki?”

At the other girls mirthful laughter, Emiki began laughing as well. The kind of laugh that starts deep in the gut, and soon has the whole body shaking, until Emiki was clutching her ribs. At Yoshi asking her not to be offended by her laughter would respond between bouts of laughter, "Why are we laughing?"

At being asked to give her a moment to compose herself Emiki couldn't even push out words between her laughter, only able to nod. It was awhile before they could stop laughing, Emiki in tears and rubbing her ribs, "Yay! Racing buddies for life!" Emiki cheered, "As for race too? Do you like a good hour long run? Or a short 10 minute run?"

Emiki would be practically vibrating in place from the excitement.

[2]

“Ah! There’s no need to have a reason to laugh! All of life’s pleasures should be enjoyed, including the roiling oil of laughter! And I intend to drink that oil whenever I’m blessed with the chance to. Do you not agree?” She would grin now, wearing a strangely determined face considering what she just said. While perhaps not as quirky as the other girl, Yoshi showed herself as being powerfully strange in a similar way through just her mannerisms and speech.

“As for the race…~” She would muse, holding her chin and stroking at it as if she were some great philosopher clad with some sort of sophisticated beard that was worthy of stroking. “A typical once round the village is what I’m fond of in Kumogakure… But this is Kirigakure, the Village of Mist, is it not? Tell me, what is the typical race here in this village? I would love for you to teach me of this village’s ways, honorable Miss Emiki. How do you normally race? Is it a ten minute run, or perhaps a one-hundred meter dash?”

LAUGHTER MAKES OIL! WHY WAS I NEVER TOLD ABOUT THIS!? AND YOU CAN DRINK OIL!? Kit lied? She said oil was poison and not to drink it!

Emiki holding the hand possition for Body Flicker popped near Yoshi and started sniffing her body trying to smell the oil. quickily popping around her, looking for the illusive oil. Which would have been weird enough Emiki wasn't trying to taste as much of her face her own tongue as possible trying to taste the oil she'd been missing the entire time. After making a full circle and failing to taste her own Laugh Oil, Emiki had a look of intense focus (aka her face was scrunched up cutely, and she looked utterly baffled), before a light bulb moment happened.

If Emiki couldn't taste her Laugh Oil, she would try tasting Yoshi's.

Darting in, she'd give Yoshi's face a long lick before backing off, confusion written on her face, "Does Laugh Oil usually taste of Body Soaps and salt? Emiki tastes, tasty flower Body Soap and salt ... hmmm ... maybe if Emiki tries again? Where does your Laugh Oil come out of usually? Oh! And Emiki licked you, that makes you Emiki's now, but Emiki's friend rather than just any slice of pizza, or my school locker, or my bedroom door knob, or whatever Emiki wants to have and makes sure everyone knows not to take it.

"Licking is the best way to claim friends Emiki thinks."

Talk of Laugh Oil had distracted her from the original conversation and would need to be reminded, but who could blame her. Magical, tasty oil made from laughter would have to taste amazing if Emiki could find out where it was supposed to be collected from.

[3]

Yoshi would stare. She had just gotten done talking about the race, but then this strange girl was now sniffing her body, and then sniffing at her own. Was she some kind of animal? It was all very bizarre, considering how normal their conversation had been up until that moment. The fact that the girl circled her like a dog now almost seemed to confirm the animalistic intent of it, and for a moment Yoshi was afraid that Emiki would attempt to sniff her butt or something. Instead it would just be that Emiki would lean in and lick straight at Yoshi’s face, an action that would send the girl into another fit of giggly laughter. The stuff that Emiki said about laugh oil afterwards only made Yoshi laugh even harder, to the point where it almost looked as if she was convulsing. She would cover her arms over her stomach as she did, taking a few steps back until she could find something to lean against. It was just too much.

“U-Usually…” She would say between laughter, having been driven to tears by what Emiki had just said and did. “Usually I make people buy me dinner first before any licking starts, but I’ll give you a special pass for this time… Oh goodness, that got me good.” She would ride the high of laughter down its natural descent, but after realizing that the girl might come in for another lick she would quickly steady herself.

“The oil is… It’s…! Ah, it’s not something that can be tasted or touched. It’s of the same material that ghosts are made of! Ethereal and floating around in the space between our thoughts, slipping between your fingers… I’m sorry to say, that if you wish to taste it that you will have a rather difficult time.”

At being told that Laugh Oil was the same stuff as ghosts were made out of Emiki's eye grew wide with amazement, and tiny sparkly stars could be see glittering in them, "That! Is! So! Cool! We're ghost mommies! Emiki didn't know she's made so many babies in Emiki's entire life! But you're right, ghosts are pretty hard to lick, they're a shy bunch, even when you try bribing them with candy ... Yoshi, you have to be the smartest, most wise person Emiki has ever met."

Emiki paused for a second and nodded sagely to herself, "It is rare that Emiki is graced with a wise woman as a friend. Who knew that ghosts were born from Laugh Oil, surely Emiki is very fortunate."

She tilted her head in thought, she knew something was going being planned, but all the Laugh Oil being produced, and what must have been surely a bazzilion baby ghosties floating around from all that laughter Emiki forgot was originally being discussed. But she knew that it must have either been running or food related, since those were the two most important things in life.

"What were we talking about? Emiki's mind has been blown so much today with learning all these super important things that my mind has forgotten our earlier talks. Was it food or running related? I can get us a feast, lots of candy, or we can just run for fun. Food and running are the two best things in life. Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Running towards a meal is even better!"

[4]

There was a big grin on her face, and she had to put all her willpower together in order to prevent herself from laughing anymore. She was almost afraid that the girl might try to lick her again, or something else. Specifically the phrase ‘ghost mommies’ was something that Yoshi wanted to avoid ever hearing again in her life. Not just because it was ridiculous, but because the idea of becoming a mother actually made her cheeks redden a bit. She wasn’t nearly ready to be a mother! That was far too much of a responsibility for her, she needed all her time in order to be a proper shinobi and also hone her speed. Plus, where would she find a husband to help her take care of a child? The only one she could think of who might fit the bill was Calis, but he was here in Kirigakure and she was from Kumogakure… It was a forbidden love, and would never work out for marriage! Yoshi didn’t even want to get married to him either anyway! She wasn’t ready for marriage! The thought of it all made her head spin now.

“Wise. Yes.” Yoshi would say, doing her best to both purge her mind of those thoughts and also keep a straight face. “I am very wise. Perhaps the wisest. I get told this very often.”

“Ah! We could race to somewhere in order to eat. That sounds pleasant, doesn’t it? A race and then a great meal afterwards… But we’d have to decide what sort of meal. A bunch of candy doesn’t make a meal after all, it’d need to be a propper, true meal… What sort of foods do you enjoy eating, Miss Emiki?”

A race! And food! Emiki felt her heart beat faster at the thought of it, and she nearly swooned at the thought of such amazing luck, "Emiki eats anything and everything that can remotely be considered food, but Emiki does love buffets the most ... even if Emiki is temporarily banned from a third of them for nearly eating them out of business. It's like an "All-You-Can-Eat" isn't supposed to be all Emiki can eat ... but that's just silly. But Emiki knows a good one that serves the best seafood, and since Emiki started going there they started making larger amount of food to eat."

Emiki would draw a crude map and explaining the route to get there the fastest, as well as a ground based map that was slightly longer if her rival wasn't the type to run on air. "So Emiki will say 1, 2, 3, Go! Then we go! Or you can say it and we can go."

Emiki would get started by holding the body flicker seal, and would hop in the air to stay airborne. Waiting for Yoshi to decide how they would start.


Air Walking + Body Flicker: B turns into A+ Speed.

[5]

“Anything and everything, huh?” Yoshitsune would grin. Excellent. A buffet would be fine, although… She could already feel that she would have to scold this girl for poor table manners. Yoshi wouldn’t hesitate to smack her fingers with chopsticks if she didn’t use the right etiquette at the table though, so hopefully she would learn fast. Still, it was an adequate choice. Yoshi did love seafood, and so a seafood buffet sounded very appealing. After watching Emiki draw the crude map she would nod sagely, as if she understood perfectly.

“Alright… Sounds good! Then… Now that we’re both ready.”

Yoshitsune would form a single hand seal before she started counting down.

“Three… Two… One… Go!”

She would speed off, zipping off at great speeds. Just like Emiki she could speed off at incredible speeds. She would hop into the air as well, running on air just as Emiki did. Unlike Emiki though, Yoshi was able to turn while running. One of the benefits of not using Body Flicker.

[Training Shukuchi]
[Using Shukuchi + Shadowless Flight]
[A Speed / A Coordination]

Emiki nodded enthusiastically about the anything and everything comment. She loved food, and all of it's forms, even somethings people doubted were food, but Emiki also ways thought if it wasn't poison, and came from something that was once living, and she could swallow it, then it definitely counted as food. Although she was always a bit confused onto how you could drink a drink, but couldn't food a food. It was one of life's greatest of mysteries.  Like how carriages drove on parkways, but parked in driveways.

As Yoshi formed her handseal, Emiki did the same, priming Body Flicker at the word "Go!" Emiki was off like a bullet, but where she was used to leaving others in the dust. Yoshi was not only keeping up, but making up the miniscule ground lost, Emiki's slightly faster speed, evening out to Yoshi's more graceful, and fluid control. Where as Emiki would seem to pop in and out of existence between body flickers, Yoshi would be a pure ghost, a shadow, faster than the speed of night, and everyone knew that night was faster than light cause there was more of it, and light couldn't be shadows in Janken.

As the neared the restaurant Emiki shouted, "There it is!" while giving it her all to be the first, Blippy-Blip McZoomypants or Sky Ballerina who would get there first?

[6]

Wind Walking (+ to Speed)
Body Flicker (B+ to A+)

Yoshi would zip off at an aggressively fast speed. Much faster than when she had initially reached Kumogakure. She had made an incredible amount of progress in this short time, between leaving for Kumogakure and where she was now at the exams. She was proud of herself. She was sure that Sojobo would have been proud of her too. But pride didn’t win you any races. Even if she was faster now, that didn’t mean that her opponent wouldn’t be even faster than she was. Unfortunately, it seemed that Emiki was faster. It was something that Yoshi could barely follow, as she spent most of her focus on running, but she could still clearly see that Emiki was running on air, and also running on air faster than she could. While disheartening, Yoshi didn’t let herself lose focus from it. Even though Emiki had the slight advantage in raw speed, it seemed that she was poor at controlling it. In retrospect Yoshitsune had an excellent control of her speed, able to weave and zip around buildings as if they were only minor annoyances. The lost ground would be able to be easily made up on. The race would be close. She would hear Emiki’s shouting. They were close. The finish line would come soon. Emiki’s aerial view would result in her having a clearer picture of the racetrack compared to Yoshi who was still foolishly on the ground. Still, Yoshi would put on a little extra burst of speed, hoping that her legs would carry her to the finish line.

It would be a photo finish. The two of them would reach their destination at exactly the same time, with Yoshi’s greater dexterity allowing to compensate for the extra speed that Emiki had. The two would skid to a halt before crashing into the restaurant though, or at least Yoshitsune would. Hopefully Emiki had the same ability to stop herself before crashing. Yoshi, gasping for breath, would turn to regard her rival in speed.

“A tie. It was a tie!” She would shout out between huffs, trying to catch her breath still. “I’ve never had a tie before! This is a first!”

Emiki didn't so much as stop as she did slam on her momentum to kill it to a normal persons run before hitting the door at a speed less than dangerous. But she was shocked, utterly dumbfounded in the best way possible. She had never not won a race before, but this shinobi, the wisest of Kunoichi, had tied with her.

"You're not just the wisest, you are also the only person in the world who can keep up with Emiki. Emiki was right to mark you as her best friend. But ... does this mean we have to share the bill for our lunch? This is new territory for Emiki, Emiki let herself have a little squee of raw delight, "We must race again more often. I can't believe I have a friend who isn't a slow poke! Best! Day! Ever!"

With that she'd show her inside and get started on showing her an Emiki-Style Lunch (Aka. Food seems to vanish before her like a magic trick, and her meal size can be measured by multipliers of her body weight.)

[7]

Yoshi would laugh, nearly crying tears of happy laughter. It was too much. This truly was unexpected. Emiki would be an excellent friend, at least until Yoshi was forced to return back to Kumogakure. Yoshi would treasure the time they could spend together though while it lasted. This trip to the restaurant for one. “It’s only fair if we split the bill and pay for ourselves... It was a tie afterall. That means we both should only half to pay half.” She would nod her head in confirmation of her own thoughts. Yoshi was glad, in the back of her mind, that she hadn’t lost. This was the second time in recent memory she had raced with someone who was faster than she was. The first time she had tried to cheat, but lost anyway. Here she played fairly but ended up tie-ing. Even though she was happy she hadn’t lost, it was in itself a bit depressing. Yoshi wanted to be the fastest. This was just another reminder that she wasn’t anywhere close to that yet.

Inside the restaurant she would find herself sitting down with Emiki, and more often than not lecturing her about her table manners. It was one of the few things that Yoshi was super anal about, and insisted that other people followed correctly. Any rudeness would result in a slap to Emiki’s hands with a pair of chopsticks, which would hopefully train her quickly to eat with at least a semblance of manners.

[Exit]